This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-320177, filed Nov. 1, 2002, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bar code generating apparatus for reading recording information such as patients"" names from specimen containers containing a specimen such as blood and then automatically generating bar codes corresponding to the recording information.
2. Description of the Related Art
Bar code readers for automatically reading information from a bar code label attached to a specimen container such as a test tube have been known conventionally. For example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 8-220105 discloses a bar code reader that is located alongside a conveyance path for conveying a specimen container holder. This bar code reader automatically reads information from a bar code label attached to the outer surface of a specimen container held by the holder and then transmits the read information to a control device (see paragraph [0023] and FIG. 2). However, there were no bar code generators for automatically reading recording information such as patients"" names and then automatically generating a bar code corresponding to the read recording information in order to make a bar code label. For this reason, conventionally, an operator read recording information as described above and input it to a bar code label issuing device to make a bar code label.
An object of the present invention is to provide a bar code generating apparatus capable of automatically, speedily, correctly generating bar codes corresponding to characters indicative of, e.g., names and handwritten information which are recorded on specimen containers such as test tubes.
In order to attain the above object, a bar code generating apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention has the following characteristic configuration. The other characteristic configurations will be clarified in the embodiment later.
A bar code generating apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention, comprises a specimen container holder which holds a container containing a specimen, a holder conveyance device provided to convey the specimen container holder, a sensor which senses information indicating that the holder conveyance device conveys the specimen container holder to a specific position and outputs the information, a conveyance temporary stop mechanism which operates based on the information output from the sensor and temporarily stops conveyance of the specimen container holder, a rotation control mechanism which rotates the specimen container holder, which is stopped temporarily by the conveyance temporary stop mechanism, on an axis of the holder, an electronic camera which picks up an image of recording information on a surface of the specimen container held by the specimen container holder rotated by the rotation control mechanism, and a bar-coding device which codes the recording information into a bar code based on data of the image picked up by the electronic camera.